Don't forget they're outsourcing the chicken and pork to China now. USDA cleared China to handle all our pork from now on because profits is better than several million people getting sick, a couple hundred thousand dying. And hopefully all the CEOs and execs being beaten to death and hopefully tortured for several weeks when the millions of pissed of families tear down their gated mansions to kill them.

Mad_Radhu:Did we learn NOTHING from the guilded age? We seriously need the zombie corpse of Teddy Roosevelt to come back and start kicking some asses.

are you kidding? the primary goal of the republican party is to return us to the gilded age. and they're succeeding. corporate profits are at an all time high. the wealthy are getting wealthier at an unprecedented pace. we're rolling back civil rights protections. women's rights are threatened.

Over 20 years ago, I worked as a QA (the company version of the USDA) at a beef slaughterhouse. The QA management was definitely all pro-company. Get out the door whatever you can w/o the USDA seeing it. We actually had a large shipment of tongues (couple tons worth) that came back because they couldn't cross the Mississippi (back when it flooded). They smelled pretty fishy and I was going to shiatcan most of them. My boss got real close and looked me in the eye and said 'I don't smell anything wrong with these'. I needed the job. I also didn't know they couldn't do what they were doing, repackaging them, without the USDA there, they had already gone home.

I guess now that place is okay, they cleaned the QA house a bit after I left.

Self regulation has been a huge success for Wall Street and the banking industry. I don't see why it can't work just as well here. It's not like the meat industry is dominated by a virtual monopoly of a tiny handful of companies that limit consumer choices. If one brand of meat becomes unsafe, the free market will respond and people will buy their beef from someone else.

Mad_Radhu:FarkedOver: Mad_Radhu: Did we learn NOTHING from the guilded age? We seriously need the zombie corpse of Teddy Roosevelt to come back and start kicking some asses.

The real heroes of that age were not presidents or any politicians.

[nebraskaiww.org image 461x430]

B-b-b-b-but Socialism!

I wish there were a strong socialist party in the U.S. They were marginalized at the time and never took root because they were jailed for being anti-american at the time.

Upton Sinclair was arrested for reciting the Bill of Rights.

Eugene Debbs was arrested for telling people WWI was an imperialist war. (it was)

Jack Reed and Big Bill Haywood both left for Russia and died there instead of dealing with the open hostility from the capitalist class.

Joe Hill was murdered for being an IWW member and set up for murder. (When he was being executed by firing squad, the execution called out "Read, Aim.... and Joe Hill yelled "FIRE!" He went out on his own terms.

The treatment of socialists, anarchists and communists in the United States has been nothing but brutal.

mod3072:Self regulation has been a huge success for Wall Street and the banking industry. I don't see why it can't work just as well here. It's not like the meat industry is dominated by a virtual monopoly of a tiny handful of companies that limit consumer choices. If one brand of meat becomes unsafe, the free market will respond and people will buy their beef from someone else.

FarkedOver:The treatment of socialists, anarchists and communists in the United States has been nothing but brutal.

If you read The Family by Jeff Sharlet, it is really scary how the Conservative Christian movement was co-opted by outright fascists early on in the 20th century, and the "fark the poor and oppressed" ideology still lingers strong today at the intersection of church and state.

FullMetalPanda:Don't forget they're outsourcing the chicken and pork to China now. USDA cleared China to handle all our pork from now on because profits is better than several million people getting sick, a couple hundred thousand dying. And hopefully all the CEOs and execs being beaten to death and hopefully tortured for several weeks when the millions of pissed of families tear down their gated mansions to kill them.

After hearing about that last week I have to check labels even closer now. Most of the spices I used to get are all now stamped "Made in China". Who knows WTF is in there now.

FullMetalPanda:Don't forget they're outsourcing the chicken and pork to China now. USDA cleared China to handle all our pork from now on because profits is better than several million people getting sick, a couple hundred thousand dying. And hopefully all the CEOs and execs being beaten to death and hopefully tortured for several weeks when the millions of pissed of families tear down their gated mansions to kill them.

Well, we're pretty much doomed then, considering most nasty diseases make the jump from human to pig in China.

BullBearMS:Hey, as long as politicians and supposed "regulators" get their pockets lined, we're all good, right?

I know right? What's the big deal. I think companies should be able to use child labor too. If people don't want to buy goods that were made in factories staffed by children they will shop else where. The free market is infallible. It makes no mistakes. So long as owners are lining their pockets, all is well in the world and we can all sleep soundly.

The poor state of the meat industry is a big part of the reason I've practically become a vegetarian. The only time I've eaten meat within the last 3 years has been when I either hunted or butchered it myself or with family, which isn't often. I'm normally pretty lazy on this sort of thing but you've got to draw a line some where besides farking nasty obfuscated with anti-bacterials and disinfectants is still farking nasty.

whither_apophis:Clearly what we need is tort reform so people can only sue the company for the value of the meat product that was spoiled, and none of that "medical bills" nonsense.

WHAT!?? You want to give people the right to sue Job Creators just because a few people get tainted meat?? I mean, just because the meat contained a few extra bacteria doesn't mean that the meat packer didn't still have costs involved with producing it. If anything, the consumer got MORE than they paid for. Maybe they should reimburse the company for the extra product they got for free. Why don't you take your socialist hippie-dippie crap and go find a drum circle or something while us Capitalists talk business, m'kay?

HypnozombieX:The poor state of the meat industry is a big part of the reason I've practically become a vegetarian. The only time I've eaten meat within the last 3 years has been when I either hunted or butchered it myself or with family, which isn't often. I'm normally pretty lazy on this sort of thing but you've got to draw a line some where besides farking nasty obfuscated with anti-bacterials and disinfectants is still farking nasty.

And this is why I'm glad I live within minutes of farms where I can get local beef, pork, chicken, turkey, rabbits...Days of buying meat at the supermarket are over. fark biohazard meat from china adulterated with god-knows-what they had an excess of to get rid of this month. Melamine? Reclaimed flue ash? Drywall?

FarkedOver:Mad_Radhu: Did we learn NOTHING from the guilded age? We seriously need the zombie corpse of Teddy Roosevelt to come back and start kicking some asses.

The real heroes of that age were not presidents or any politicians.

[nebraskaiww.org image 461x430]

That's true. We need a resurgence of union power. People forget too easily what unions did for the average laborer (aka the 99%). The more unions, the more workplaces unionized, and the more people in unions, the better life people have. We've seen what life was like for the average person before union power and what's happened when union power waned. Unfortunately, most people won't bother to learn from history :(

FlashHarry:Mad_Radhu: Did we learn NOTHING from the guilded age? We seriously need the zombie corpse of Teddy Roosevelt to come back and start kicking some asses.

are you kidding? the primary goal of the republican party is to return us to the gilded age. and they're succeeding. corporate profits are at an all time high. the wealthy are getting wealthier at an unprecedented pace. we're rolling back civil rights protections. women's rights are threatened.

Mad_Radhu:FarkedOver: The treatment of socialists, anarchists and communists in the United States has been nothing but brutal.

If you read The Family by Jeff Sharlet, it is really scary how the Conservative Christian movement was co-opted by outright fascists early on in the 20th century, and the "fark the poor and oppressed" ideology still lingers strong today at the intersection of church and state.

nocturnal001:I'd be fine with getting rid of all government regulation, assuming we also got rid of the corporate shield.

Um, deregulation means getting rid of regulations. If you get rid of regulation, there's no need for the corporate shield. You wouldn't see CEOs going to jail because nothing they did would be illegal.